Moshe Rabbenu - Negatives and Positives of Coming to the End

 Parshat Vayelekh

by Rabbi Avi Billet

The opening verse of Parshat Vayelekh describes how Moshe Rabbenu went around to all of Israel to tell them his final messages. Continuing the introduction, Rashi notes that the possibility that Moshe is unable to go out because of his aging. Rashi rejects this, however, because the Torah will soon tell us that Moshe’s age didn’t slow him down. (per Devarim 34:7) 

Then Rashi offers two alternative explanations: 

1. I am unable because God has given my position to Yehoshua 

2. He is unable to go out and come with Divrei Torah since the depth and wells of Torah have become closed off to him 

The first answer makes sense. God has put Moshe into retirement, and he has accepted his fate. Yehoshua will be taking over, and there can’t be two leaders – especially if one of them is Moshe – at the same time. 

Spread Around to Build a Brighter World

Parshat Nitzavim 

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

Devarim 29:27 is the middle of a quote that the nations will say one day when they look upon the devastated land of Israel, wondering why God will have destroyed it and exiled His people. A verse before (29:24) says “It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers…” 

Their conclusion (verse 27) will state “And this is why God cast them to other lands.”

R Samson Raphael Hirsch has a subtle comment, worthy of a mini-dive. 

 “Even when they are exiled from their land, and spread among the nations, they are still serving Hashem, preparing the world for His purposes and aims.” 

This is not a case of the “Elders of Zion” (as in the fraudulent protocols), because this is not a plot to take over the world, or to get anyone back as vengeance for mistreatment. This is a mission from God Almighty to spread His ethics and His ways for the world to see what is possible in the brotherhood and fellowship of Mankind. Whether this was to be done through some Jewish equivalent of missionary work or whether the Jews were merely to live by example, modeling for all God’s ways, without “reaching out” to non-Jews, is a subject of debate. Suffice it to say most Jewish “outreach” has really been “inreach” – trying to reach Jews who have been distanced from their own heritage. 

Free Will to Recognize God’s Hand in Our Lives

Parshat Ki Tavo

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Towards the end of the Torah portion, Moshe reflects on the experience of 40 years, noting, among other things, that during this time the people didn’t eat real bread, drink wine or other alcohol, and didn’t experience the deterioration of their clothing and shoes. This led into the readiness to fight against Sichon and Og, and to be able to trust that God would be with the Bnei Yisrael through their travails. 

Before going into those details and specifics, however, Moshe tells the people, “God has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day.” (29:3) 

Meshekh Hokhma explains, 

“The children of Israel had often made the mistake of contributing divine powers to Moses, whereas he was merely a mortal messenger of God, through whom He communicated on matters respecting the Jewish people. When were they finally cured of this delusion? On the day that Moses died. Then they realized he was but mortal like themselves, and all the miracles and wonders were directly derived from the Divine will. Now our Sages observed that Moses uttered this discourse on the day of his death, as his final testament. For this reason, it is stated that, ‘God hath not given you a heart to know… unto this day’ – the day Moses died. Only then could they realize that God was behind every step and turn.” (translation taken from Nechama Leibowitz, Studies in Devarim (English Edition), page 292) 

This interpretation comes in the wake of others who either blame God for their inability to see, etc. or their own inability to grow due to rote or, as Nechama Leibowitz puts it, “the deadening effect of familiarity and habit.” 

Sept 10 and Sept 11 - Charlie Kirk and the 24th Anniversary of 9/11

This past Shabbos, the Torah reading ended with the “Parsha of Amalek” reminding us to “remember” the evil that is Amalek, and “not to forget” the evil that is Amalek.  One is a positive commandment to recall, and the other is a call to never forget even when being passive.  Amalek, after all, is the embodiment of evil. And evil has but one goal - to destroy that which is good in this world, to destroy the ideology (i.e. goodness and decency) that is stronger and more powerful than the cowardice of Amalek, who attacks from behind, who attacks the stragglers, the weak ones, and those who are unarmed and defenseless. 

How appropriate. And how ironic. Jewish people are once again reeling from a terrorist attack in Israel that took at least six holy and precious lives, injuring more people as well. 

And here we are, a few days later, on the anniversary of one of the darkest days in the story of the United States of America, September 11, 2001, when close to 3,000 Americans died at the hands of evil monsters looking to destroy the way of life that represents liberty and many freedoms that are the envy of most of the world, finding ourselves shaking our heads in disbelief that evil has risen its head to take out a champion of those freedoms.

Those who were adults, and probably even teenagers, remember where they were and what they were doing when the news started getting around that one plane, then another, had hit the World Trade Center towers. And then more news about the Pentagon and a plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

I recall watching the towers fall through a television I had managed to connect through the old-school antenna it had in the school I was working in at the time, and thinking that likely tens of thousands of people would be lost in the rubble. I didn't think about how those below the planes would have gotten out, or those on the other side of the buildings, who weren't trapped, even managed to get down from higher floors. There was some time between the impact and the collapse. 

Some Thoughts on Divorce, and the Get

Parshat Ki Tetze

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

Divorce is not a funny subject. Jokes about divorce, on the other hand, could be funny. 

Many years ago, I attended a lecture given by a Dayan from England, on the topic of divorce – the talk was a serious one, and the messages he shared about working on a marriage and doing whatever possible to save a marriage were quite valuable – while he also acknowledged that some divorces (though possibly not all proposed divorces) need to take place. 

 Before he began his lecture, he said, in an unmistakable British accent, “Before I begin, I may as well get the old joke out of the way,” and he began to tell of a loving husband who was asking his wife what she wanted for her birthday… each offer was summarily rejected.